The Chunin Exams
The First Chunin Exams 'Pre-Chunin Exams and Preparation' Before the Chunin Exams, Suzume's jonin team leader Murasaki arranged a training session with Team Togeshiro. During these exams, Team Murasaki which consisted of Dengo, Suzume, and Haruka had a chance to meet and gauge the abilities of Fūdo, Fo-ji, and Kenji. When the time came around for her to have a one-on-one battle, she was paired up to fight against Fudo. Fudo, while managing to defeat her, complimented her ability to fight, something no one has ever done before. Because of this, Suzume grew an instant fondness towards Fudo. 'The Written Portion' During the written section of the exam, tags were placed on the back of every students' text that would trigger at a random time during the test. If the exam wasn't completed before the time of the tag's expiration, the entire team would be eliminated from the Chunin Exams. This test was proctored by Jiraya. Every one of the three teams from Sunagakure cheated. Kenji was smart enough to know the majority of the answers. However, Fudo was not and Kenji ended up having to aid his big brother. Using his wind, Fudo pushed a corner of his test paper to Kenji for him to write down the answers on. Fo-ji used melted metal as mirrors to copy the answers of his fellow ninja and pass the first exam with ease. Akio and Daichi luckily got the aid of Seirei. Using her fans, she whispered the answers and blew them down the line to her teammates. Suzume and Haruka got by thanks to Dengo helping them with the ones they didn't know with his clay ninjutsu molding underneath the paper to give her the answers. 'The Forest of Death' This test was proctored by Orochimaru. During the second exam in the Forest of Death, Team Murasaki took a more intelligent approach and remained still, letting teams find them and even drawing attention to themselves while Dengo befriended the creatures of the forest to enlist their help in protecting the team. After obtaining extra scrolls this way, but still not the Heaven scroll they needed, Fudo leapt out of the forest and went to attack Suzume. Not thinking, as she usually does, Suzume was excited to see him and caught him in a hug. But Fudo wasn't so warm back towards her. Before leaving for Konohagakure, Fudo had learned of Suzume's clan and their wealth. This angered him that such a clan could exist while so many others suffer and he lashed out at Suzume, who paid attention to everything Fudo said uncharacteristically. Suzume said hardly anything back to defend herself, but allowed Fudo to continue yelling at her. Her only reply was asking Fudo if he hated her now, which he never outright answered. The two prepared to fight when Dengo attempted to break it up. Fudo then turned to Dengo, asking why someone who had faced the poverty of Sunagakure could be friends with Suzume. Dengo explained to Fudo that Suzume did not chose the life she lived and that Suzume was never anything but good to Dengo, regardless of class or wealth, which was also a rarity for her family. Eventually, Fudo calmed down and realized that Suzume perhaps wasn't as bad as the rest of her clan and even told her that she was pretty before beginning to walk away. Suzume, after asking her team's permission, attempted to give an Earth scroll to the team for their troubles, but Fudo made it a show to not accept it. He attempted to hint to her, however, to hide the scroll for them to find but Suzume air-headedly handed it back to Haruka, telling her "they didn't want it." In the end, Team Murasaki decided to take to the tower. There, they met with Team Renji and gave them their remaining scroll before the two teams finished the exams together. They were the last two teams to make it the center. 'The Preliminaries' This test was proctored by Tsunade originally, but due to her defiance to the Third Hokage, her position was forfeitted during the Preliminaries and granted to Minato Namikaze. During the preliminary fights, Suzume was paired up in the fight battle against Fudo. Both, excited for the re-match, took to the stage and held nothing back. Unlike her first sparring match with Fudo before the Chunin Exams, Suzume remained focused during this fight. In the end, however, Fudo again managed to get the upper hand and win the match. Haruka fell to Inoichi in the first seconds of their match due to the fact that she didn't know anything about his abilities. She was so upset with herself because of how much she wanted to test herself against a Konoha ninja and all he did was posses her and stun her. That just made her angry, plus him calling her ugly just added insult to injury. Not to mention she thought she let her sensei down. During the preliminiaries Fo-ji had to fight no one do to him getting a free ride, by order of Danzo once again. 'Before the Final Exam' Before Final Exams, Fo-ji meets a girl named Megumi. Megumi tells him she is the daughter of a weapon shop owner. In this time of mental unrest she is a comforting third party that Fo-ji is happy to have around. She gives him the chance to remember that he is still a thirteen year old boy. For Fo-ji it was perfect that he met her when he did. He is so infatuated with this girl he doesn't realize the gap she is slowly starting to chizle between himself and his teammates, which he also doesn't realize is exactly what Danzo planned. Megumi is actually a member of Danzo's ANBU Root, given the mission to pose as Fo-ji's girlfriend and keep him on his path. Later, while everybody's families show up to Konohagakure, Yasha makes her introduction appearance to Kenji, Fo-ji, and Togeshiro. After Fudo explains to them that she is considered the mother of the Shin'nijakku, she informs him she's come to Konohagakure not only to watch his matches but also for a secret mission. Fuiji quickly spoils the surprise though, explaining they are there to purchase alcohol to resell at Sunagakure for the Shin'nijakku. She quickly forces Fo-ji and Togeshiro to aid in her purchases, both to carry the heavy loads and to be involved so they cannot rat the group out. As they travel and through the rest of the time they spend together, Yasha shows Fo-ji and Togeshiro a surprising amount of kindness. It seems that she takes great interest in the two of them, wanting to know exactly it is that Fudo and Kenji spend most their time with. At first Fo-ji was disgusted by the whole thing. However, he couldn't bring himself to hate her. She was a kind woman that truly mystified him. He may hate the Gang she was associated with, but much like Fūdo he couldn't blame her. He couldn't inact his justice on her even if he had truly wanted to. Later in the day, Yasha invites the team to spend dinner with her. All agree, though Fo-ji claims he has to ask his parents who are also visiting. He storms to their hotel, disguisted with the events only to discover that Yasha has extended her invitation to his family for dinner as well. They tell Fo-ji that they accepted, having known Yasha and even built weapons for Shin'nijakku members before. Fo-ji's brother Ikigo even knows Yasha on a personal level from past dealings.This shock caused Fo-ji to completely question his ideals and disconnected him from everything. He can't make up his mind to be disgusted with his family or not Later that night, the families and team all show up to the dinner and celebrate, to which Fo-ji excuses himself early from. Instead, he and Megumi spend some more time together. The following morning, before the finals are about to take place, Yasha stands in the hallway leading to their destination at the stadium. She offers three gifts to the genin - pearl bracelets with a bull horn for Fo-ji, a wolf's fang for Fudo, and a fox's paw for Kenji. She explains these are their animal totems, which will serve as good luck charms for the matches. After watching all the matches from the stadium, towards the end Yasha presents Togeshiro with a pearl necklace that has a deer antler on it's end. She tells Togeshiro that the deer is his animal totem and declares he is a good enough sensei to watch over her "sons". 'The Finals' Fo-ji finally gets his first match, which is against Inoichi. However, the Yamanaka showed signs of poisoning throughout the battle. Even still Fo-ji, almost lost his life to one of Inoichi's attacks and was about to repay the favor when the match was called in Fo-ji's favor. This fact upset Fo-ji because he wanted to continue with the fight. What made him even more upset was that the crowd had thought that Fo-ji had been the one to poison Inoichi before the match. Going into the semi-final match Fo-ji was stressed, broken, loss of faith in himself, and had so much more responsibility put onto him. Needless to say he needed and outlet and Kenji just happened to be his opponent. At first Fo-ji attacked with everything he had, taking out his anger on the young boy. But halfway through the battle the weight of everything was just to much and he started to dwell on it again. He became impatient and waisted the oppurtunities he had. Even becoming angry when Kenji started to gather the upper hand even though Fo-ji had done so much to him. In the end he realized something, this was his comrade and he shouldn't come at him how he was. So, he did something he never thought he would do so full heartidly. He smiled at the boy and told him how strong he was. Fo-ji was happy Kenji beat him, something he normally would have been angry about. However when fighting Kenji something snapped and he became at peace. Maybe it was the poison the young ninja had used on him, Fo-ji wasn't sure. But he became okay with the idea that Kenji had bested him. Chunin Selection Standing in front of the Kazekage, both Kenji and Fudo made it to chunin level. Fo-ji thought his promotion was guaranted, but soon learned it was not. Without warning, Danzo himself spoke up against Fo-ji's moving up. Fo-ji was caught off guard by his words and felt even more betrayed. He did everything that Danzo had said. Over taken by anger Fo-ji left the after party and took out his anger on a few trees. Fudo came to him and told him if he ever went after Kenji like he did before he'd personally kill Fo-ji. Fo-ji on the other hand could care less what the gangster had to say. If anything he was hoping Fudo would egg him on enough so that he could have killed him there. Once Fudo left it was Togeshiro's turn to come and talk to Fo-ji. Fo-ji opened up and told his sensei about his hate, telling him about how it was the Shinijaku-shu that had killed his family and that he couldn't forgive them. To Fo-ji, Togeshiro just sounded incredibly naive when he said he hoped Fo-ji could forgive the people that had wronged him. The next day Fo-ji was incredibly pleased that Megumi was coming back to Sunagakure with him. And after some egging on, he invited her to come and stay at his place and work in the forge beside himself and his father. It was a few weeks after this that Danzo approached Fo-ji again. Fo-ji met with him and confronted him about the Chunin Selection. Danzo spoke every word that Fo-ji would want to hear. Making him believe that Danzo saw him as a son and that he was more than a Root member to him. Fo-ji wanted to hear those words, wanted to beleive in Danzo. And now, he truly did. Danzo became to him one of the two people he could truly rely on and understood his wants. Even if it meant keeping things from the Elders. Passed: Fudo, Kenji, Baki, Kyohei, Chika, Seirei, Might Guy, Shikaku, Inoichi, Tsume, Raigou, Tenzo Failed: Fo-ji, Haruka, Suzume, Akio, Daichi, Choza, Obito, Rin, Kurenai Unknown: Asuma and Shizune Category:Timeline